BioNTech acquires Novartis site to boost COVID vaccine production

Germany's BioNTech and U.S. drugmaker Pfizer have previously said this would be possible as early as late October.

The transaction with Novartis, for which the price tag was not disclosed, is part of a push to prepare for a global roll-out of the pair's experimental vaccine, based on so-called messenger RNA (mRNA) technology.

The facility in Marburg will be converted to be fully on stream in the first half of 2021 with an annual production capacity up to 750 million doses of the inoculation.

BioNTech and Pfizer were previously aiming to supply up to 100 million doses worldwide by the end of this year and an additional 1.3 billion doses by the end of 2021.

Chief Financial Officer Sierk Poetting said the 2021 output volume target should be increased by several hundred million doses and a precise number would depend on the timing of the production launch and ramp-up speed.

The biotech firm said the facility, with its 300 staff that will join BioNTech, will be one of the largest mRNA manufacturing sites in Europe, alongside two of BioNTech's existing vaccine production sites.

Pfizer said it had at least four production sites in the United States and Europe.

BioNTech said the infrastructure and qualified staff would allow for a quick retooling to make its mRNA vaccine, but the new site would also support its main cancer drug development programme.

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